


We'll See

by mollymauks



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (Ish) - Freeform, Character Study, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, i can't think of any taaags, they just talk and then make out a bit THAT'S ALL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 20:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13959810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollymauks/pseuds/mollymauks
Summary: Caleb/Molly prompted: Adronitis: Frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone.Teaser: “At the end of the day, we care about stories. We remember stories. They’re the things that make us laugh, make us cry, make us love them and live for them. Compared to that, whether or not the story is true is of little consequence.”“It is of consequence to me,” Caleb replied, stubbornly.





	We'll See

**Adronitis** : Frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone: Molly/Caleb: 

“Do you think you could just…Tell the truth to us? Just once?” Caleb snapped, suddenly. 

Molly blinked, glancing towards the wagon that he’d been riding beside as they made their steady way along the road towards the next city. He had been chatting animatedly with Jester, who had been asking him things about himself for the better part of an hour, and he’d been doing as he was wont to do and giving her ever more ridiculous, and utterly bullshit, stories. 

He hadn’t even been aware that Caleb had been listening. His head had been buried in one of his books, as usual, and he seemed as oblivious to Molly’s conversation as he would have had been sitting at the bottom of a lake while it took place. 

“Excuse me?” Molly replied, mildly, raising his eyebrows at the wizard, who was staring up at him, book still open in his lap, but for once not holding his entire attention. 

“Everything that has ever come out of your mouth from the day we met you has been a lie,” Caleb said. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Molly could see Beau muttering something to Jester, while Fjord watched on, quiet, but with a keen interest. None of them made any move to interrupt. “Whenever we ask you a question, or whenever you tell us anything about yourself, or your past, it’s all bullshit. Why say anything if you’re not going to say the truth?” 

Molly felt that this was rather rich coming from Caleb who, by all accounts, had been more tight-lipped than a thousand years dead ocean clam. 

However, not wishing to cause a fight on the road, knowing from experience how painful that could make things for everyone, he simply cocked his head to one side and said, easily, “In my experience, people don’t often care about the truth. Particularly not when they’re on the road, passing the same scenery as they have been for the last twenty miles,” he added, with a sidelong look at Jester, who nodded vaguely in agreement. 

He shrugged again. 

“At the end of the day, we care about stories. We  _remember_  stories. They’re the things that make us laugh, make us cry, make us love them and live for them. Compared to that, whether or not the story is true is of little consequence.” 

“It is of consequence to me,” Caleb replied, stubbornly. 

Molly stared long and hard at him, then manoeuvred his horse to trot closer to the wagon, so that only Caleb could hear his next words, “Why does it matter to you?” he asked, staring at the wizard intently. 

As usual, Caleb didn’t quite meet his eyes, but Molly had rather quickly learned this had much less to do with honesty and lies than it had to do with Caleb simply being Caleb. 

“Why do you care whether I tell the truth or a pack of lies? My past doesn’t matter to you, doesn’t matter to any of this. It’s got nothing to do with why I’m here, or who I am, or what we are. it’s just a story.” 

“It matters,” Caleb gritted out, “Because…”He hesitated, for just a fraction of a second, then said stoutly “It matters because I am travelling with you, and Nott is also travelling with you. We are putting ourselves in dangerous situations with you, and our lives in your hands.That is why it matters.” 

Molly laughed, a soft, silky, dangerous thing, “It doesn’t matter for that, either,” he said, smoothly. “All you need to know for that is that I know how to handle a sword,”  he drew one of his scimitars in a single, fluid motion, and tossed it into the air, catching it with ease and deftly spinning it through the air around him before slipping it deftly back into its sheathe. “And you know perfectly well I can handle myself. It’s saved your life on more than one occasion, don’t forget.” 

“I don’t forget that,” Caleb said, keeping his voice a little lower, too, so the others couldn’t hear, though Molly noticed Nott’s ears twitching slightly from where she sat up front driving their wagon. “But I feel as though I have been travelling with you for months now, but I don’t know a single thing about you, and that troubles me.” 

Molly smiled easily at that, “That just makes life more fun, Caleb. A little mystery, a little uncertainty, a little danger.” 

“Yes” Caleb replied drily, “Because we all need more danger in our lives.” 

Molly laughed. “I’m not a danger to you, Caleb” he said, letting his voice soften, “If you know nothing else about me, know that. I will never hurt you. Or Nott. I’ll protect you both as best I can. And likely die some day, riddled with arrows, to stop you becoming a walking hedgehog again. I’ve made my peace with that. Make your peace with me. That’s all you need to know to travel with me.” 

With that, he dug his heels into his horse, and trotted ahead, out of earshot of the wizard, up to the head of the party to chat to Fjord a little. 

***

Later that night, when they had made camp and settled themselves, Caleb was interrupted by the soft crunch of boots on stone. 

He glanced up to see Molly picking his way towards him, deliberately making noise so as to alert Caleb to his presence and not startle him. Which was annoyingly considerate of him. 

Molly was a riddle of contradictions, and had been from the day they had met. He was so relaxed, and unconcerned, and uncaring about seemingly everything…Yet he would also take care to signal his approach so as not to startle him. Pull him back to himself in the middle of a battle and kiss him gently on the head afterwards. Stand in front of him and use his body as a shield to take wounds that would otherwise have been meant for him. 

Caleb couldn’t understand him. His world was governed by structure, and order, and information. Once he understood something he knew what he could do with it, how he could use it, whether or not he should avoid it, whether or not he should keep it around. Molly stubbornly refused to be neatly placed into a box in Caleb’s mind, where he could be filed away and understood. Instead he flitted from point to point, like an insect, resisting all attempts at capture. 

And now he marched up to him out of the darkness with a rather alarming air of purpose around him. 

“Can I help you?” Caleb asked because that what you were supposed to say, not because he actually felt any inclination to help Molly with anything at the moment, absorbed as he was in his studies. 

“We’ll see,” Molly replied cheerfully, plonking himself down on the ground beside Caleb, leaning casually against the broad-trunked tree at their back. 

“Uh,” Caleb began, frowning slightly, “Do you mind? I’m rather busy at the moment,” he gestured towards the books that were spread out around him, “Perhaps we could do this another time?” 

“Oh I’m sure we could,” Molly replied, evenly, “But we’re going to do it now. I promise not to take up too much of your precious study time.” 

Resigned, Caleb sighed, and waved his hand for Molly to get on with it. The sooner he said whatever it was he had come here to say, the sooner Caleb could return to his reading. 

“You don’t like liars,” Molly said, boldly, apparently just getting right into it, which he appreciated. 

“What gave me away?” he deadpanned in answer. 

A wry grin spread across Molly’s face at that, but he continued as though Caleb hadn’t said anything at all. “But you lied to me earlier, back on the road, when I asked you why it bothered you that I had lied about my past. You don’t give a fuck about making sure I’m a worthy travel companion. I’ve proved my worth on that front a hundred times over. So what ‘s the truth, Caleb?” 

Caleb blinked, rather shocked by the bluntness of this statement, but rallied quickly. “If you thought I was lying to you back then, why didn’t you challenge me then?” 

“Oh, well,” Molly said, shifting slightly, angling himself away from the tree, planting his hands behind him in the long grass, and stretching back, head tipped up towards the star-strewn sky. 

Caleb licked his lips, unable to stop his gaze drifting over the sweeping, delicate lines of the tiefling’s body. The shirt he always wore was parted in that deep, slashing v down t he front, revealing his light, lavender skin, criss-crossed with scars, flowing up into the strong column of his throat, the angled jaw, those beautiful, elegant lips. 

He gave himself a little shake as he realised Molly was talking again. 

“I thought the others had had enough of a show as it was,” he said, jerking his head lazily in the direction of their main camp, “And besides, I wanted to discuss this matter with you more privately.” For some reason, the emphasis he put on that last word made Caleb shiver. Molly widened his eyes innocently at him, “That’s not a problem, is it?” 

“No,” he ground out, automatically, even though it was. 

Molly let out that soft little laugh again, “More lies, Caleb?” he challenged, arching forwards now, red eyes gleaming in the glow from the dancing lights Caleb had conjured earlier to light his reading. “ I promise I don’t bite…Unless you ask nicely.” He laughed again, and Caleb shivered once more. “What’s the problem with being alone with me, then?” 

What was the problem? The problem was that his heart had gone into a frantic gallop the moment Molly had settled himself beside him. The problem was that the intimacy of this situation was raking its claws down every raw, shredded nerve he possessed. The problem was he didn’t trust himself alone with Molly, didn’t trust himself to have the self-control he needed to have, the self-control he  _always_  had for everyone but this gods-damned tiefling. 

The problem was that Molly’s proximity, the heat that burned from his skin, the smirk curving his beautiful lips, and the fact that there was no-one around to see made Caleb want nothing so much as to slam into the tree behind him and kiss him until he couldn’t breathe, much less utter any of those clever comments of his. 

“The problem is,” he said, because he couldn’t very well say the truth, for all his desire for it from Molly, “That I was busy  reading, and you interrupted me for apparently no reason.” 

Molly’s smile just broadened at that, as though he knew precisely what Caleb had been thinking, and had decided to respond to that as opposed to the load of bullshit that had just come out of his mouth. 

“I’m feeling generous this evening,” Molly said, settling back, his tail swaying lazily back and forth, like a snake before a charmer, “So I’ll let you answer again. Why do you care, Caleb?” 

He stared for a long moment at Molly, idly tapping the point of the quill he was holding against the parchment balanced on his lap. Finally, he gave the answer as close to the truth as he could, “Because I do not know you. And I want to.” 

Molly stared back at him, the silence enveloping them both, clearly unsure how to respond to that, apparently not having been anticipating it.  Caleb felt a ridiculous rush of pride at the idea that he might have actually managed to unbalance Mollymauk, when he was usually so composed and unflappable. 

Finally, he said, “You’ve been travelling with me for months now, Caleb. We’ve fought, and killed, and brushed death together. I think you know me.” 

Caleb shook his head, the frustration he’d been feeling for weeks now biting off the end of his patience. “You cannot someone if you don’t know their past. We are all a different pattern of scars. We are all a messy patchwork of the things that have happened to us, stitched together with the things that we’ve done. Your past defines who you are, and I know none of yours, so I know nothing of you.” 

“No,” Molly said, a strain to his voice that Caleb couldn’t place, a deep emotion stirring in those red eyes, something that seemed like sadness when he looked at it. “We’re not defined by our pasts, Caleb,” with that, the usual ease, the casual charm and confidence all returned, so smoothly that he wondered if he had ever seen that flicker of…Something else from the tiefling. “We’re defined by our actions. We’re defined by the choices that we make. The things we protect. The things we pursue. The things that we love. That is what makes us who we are right now, in this moment. That’s all I care about. And you’ve seen more than enough from me, Caleb to know who and what I am.” 

“I have,” he murmured softly, “But I have also seen you lie to me.” 

Molly smiled humorlessly, looking away from him and shaking his head. the jewellery in his horns caught the edges of Caleb’s dancing light spell for just a moment, and they burst, sending a shower of stars spattering across the small clearing he had settled himself in, with Molly at their centre. 

Then he said, quite suddenly, “Do you trust me, Caleb?” 

he wanted to say that of course he didn’t. He didn’t know him. How could he ever trust what he didn’t know? How could he trust someone who lied to him, who considered stories more important to tell than truth? How could he trust someone who did the things that Molly did to him with seeming ease and abandon? 

But he didn’t. 

Instead, he let a single, raw truth spill from his lips before he could call it back, “Yes.” 

And that was the true heart of the matter. Molly had given him every reason, every reason in the world, not to trust him, not to let himself get close to him, not to spare so much as a second thought for him. But he did. He trusted him. And it terrified him. 

A slow, satisfied smile bloomed across Molly’s face, and his eyes danced with victory as he moved in closer to him. “The truth at last,” he said, softly, “You trust me in spite of it all.” 

“Yes,” Caleb whispered again, his eyes closed, his head hanging as shame flooded his lungs, and heat flooded his cheeks. 

Molly slid a clawed finger beneath his chin and gently but firmly tilted his face up again. He licked his lips, dragging his eyes slowly, deliberately, up, and then down, Caleb’s body. 

He leaned forwards, until his scent was almost overwhelming Caleb’s senses, and the heat between them was nearly too much to bare. Then he whispered, mouth so close to his ear that his fangs gently grazed the shell of it, “Prove it to me.” 

He drew back, his eyes gleaming hungrily, and Caleb knew what he wanted. Knew what they both wanted. He knew what Molly was asking for. He knew, and he gave it to him without thought. 

Cupping his cheek in his hand, Caleb kissed him. 

It wasn’t a thing of gentle confessions and timid feelings. It was a thing of furiously bottled emotions, of burst dams, and finally released explosions. It was everything that had been building inside Caleb for weeks. It was hunger, and it was passion. It was instinct, and it was fever. It was desire and need tangled together. It was truth. And it was beautiful. It was  _divine_. 

When they broke apart at last, Molly was as flushed and breathless as Caleb had always pictured him, and he couldn’t help the faint smile that curved his lips at the realisation. 

“Was that proof enough?” he asked, breathing hard himself. 

“We’ll see,” Molly breathed back, then leaned in to kiss him once more. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thaanks for reading. my first attempt at these too so feedback would be Grand.


End file.
